RPG Writing general discussion

(I'm deleting my post in that thread and taking it over here. By the way, I saw your post in the "Locked in a Room" thread and I'm gonna blow that shit outta here tomorrow. But for now...)

Old post:

@GF: Your writing wasn't horrible, but it DID get a little confusing at times and I only noticed that because I was making the same mistakes. These aren't directed at JUST you, but here are some "golden" rules I (try to) follow:

- Write as clearly as you can. YOU know what you're talking about, but does everyone else? How will they know who's talking? Like I've learned, color-coding isn't enough, especially when no one else knows who's whom (is Bloo green, or is that CH?).

- No in-jokes with yourself. The Rain was fucking HORRIBLE because of my in-jokeAs between my NPCs, and the quality suffered so much that I want to forget it as soon as my fight with Doc is finished.

- Keep writing, no matter how stupid it is, no matter how simple your chosen words are. Go back and change those words using a thesaurus. Now rearrange and get rid of things. Done? Now go back and erase 20% of it. If you can say something using 5 words, don't use 10. No one has time to read all that, and I KNOW I'm the worst offender for long posts, but that doesn't make it okay and I'm working on it.

- Don't force big words, especially if you don't know what they mean. The word "said" is enough to say someone said something. If your soldier is always barking when he talks, he's not badass, he's got throat cancer.

This really isn't a lot to keep in mind. You don't have to impress anyone or write like Neil Gaiman and John Green. You don't have to question the meaning of life or talking about how sick your character is in every goddamn post.

If you want to put in the extra effort to use fancier words and html coding like I do, by all means, do it. But your posts can be a simple one or two paragraphs. FH and DD are masters at writing JUST as much as they need (DD, one of your posts was literally just two lines one time and it did a good job of moving things along) without hiding behind all the shit that I pull, and I can learn a thing or two from them.

@FH: Seriously though, less is more sometimes, and I really gotta practice restraint.

You're the only person I can tolerate Xenomorphs speaking/thinking English from, if anyone else does it I get really annoyed.

Anyway, that was unrelated. Yes, sometimes less is more but I think the long posts can be very entertaining as well, I always enjoy reading your posts, even the nonsensical ones from the Rain.

Also, I hope you don't feel that I pilfered your style at all, because that was never my intention. From my first RPG that I remember (I turned into a Queen, somehow, and I don't know why, it was that one that Assassin was in and he freaked) my character was brutal, and, unlike now, it spoke and was given a gender, nowadays I prefer it if Xenomorphs besides the Queen are referred to as gender-neutral, just makes more sense to me.

Long posts used to be encouraged because people got so tired of posts being a couple words, but honestly there is a such thing as too long, and in the same respect, too short. My problem in forums has always been long posts, so many times I've been in conversations and debates and everyone posts a couple of words and I post long points. There was a specific conversation in another forum that I was debating some points and I literally posted a 10-paragraph post, my average honestly is 7. I always found that to be better, and in RPGs the same thing. However, one problem is that no one feels like reading it all, so then they'll skim or even skip it and then the story gets plot-holes.

However I do want to say that even though I'm in agreement with not posting too much or too long and using pointless terms and keeping it simple, I have to point out that too short can be just as obnoxious. I never enjoy reading an RPG and one player posts a nice solid 2-3 paragraph simply-worded post and the next one is a Xeno player saying "I found the building and entered throught the air vent." It's like when I get in debates in another forum and I do those long 7-10 paragraph posts and they reply with "Good Point" or "I don't agree" and that's it. Imagine those times you text someone with a long meaningful information-filled text and they reply with "K"...

In all honesty with Xenomorphs, when it comes to communicating they can give other species a look or an emotion-intended hiss but that's it. To other Xenomorphs, then they can communicate but just don't go saying things like "Yes we should do that", just nod to them and say "I nodded and followed" or maybe "I hissed in disagreement" or "I (did whatever) as if to say no"... best case scenario, "I implied a No" or "I suggested no"

Same goes for Yautja, don't look at them a say "Nah bro" say "I shook my head" or "I growled a no"... and for the love of humanity no more "With a series of clicks and growls..." that has gotten old. Granted if an RPG comes around where yautja are allowed verbal communication, speak with some pride as if they would, no like us, these are Preds, they would sooner say "I disagree" or "Here is my plan..." before they would say "Nah bruh" or "Hey I got it guys..."

Btw... yeah, xenos are genderless... alpha-male I wouldn't necessarily see means a male that breeds with the females, it's more like wolves or even better yet like the Preds, like in AvP the Celtic, just means the strongest and therefore most-respected by fellow allies. Other than the "Queen" which is more like a leader, They are genderless asexual insect-serpents, where only "queen-status" Xenos are "fertile".

@FH: No worries, you were actually one of the few that kept to his own thing, and it worked great.

@HP: I get what you mean, it's completely understandable. If I was to fight someone like Stalker or Donut, I'm not sure how they'd react to my "dark meta comedy"-style where actively I acknowledge that we're in an RPG and my Xenomorph has human thoughts. People like FH have the more traditional style, though, so maybe my style isn't such a bad thing.

But yeah, I've seen both current members and inactive ones have their Xenos speak, and I agree with you and FH, it just doesn't work if they're having full conversations. But I hopefully set enough of a tone with my style that it's acceptable - I try to make it known that my Xeno doesn't actually speak at all, but her emotions and thoughts are being "translated" by an idiot with a keyboard, which is why I'll often have dialogue like this:

"On review, Bloo's schemes seem a bit convoluted…

…But she wouldn’t have it any other way."